As another year draws to a close at Moorestown Friends School, it is once again time to say goodbye to some of our beloved staff and prepare to welcome new teachers into the MFS community. The 2014-2015 school year will bring an influx of new teachers, both to the Upper School and to the school as a whole. In September, MFS students will meet two new language teachers, two new English teachers, and welcome back a dearly missed history teacher.
The language department will welcome two new faculty members, both of whom will teach Spanish and French in the middle and upper schools. Julie Ferreira is a French native with multiple BAs from Universities spanning the globe from Paris, France to Boston, Massachusetts. Ferreira has three years of prior teaching experience and is also an accomplished gymnast and coach. She will teach middle and upper school as well as serve as a middle school advisor.
Michael Griffin is an experienced world language teacher with over 12 years of teaching under his belt. He taught at his high school alma mater, Holy Ghost Preparatory School, and has also worked as a PRAXIS exam grader and AP exam reader. Griffin is passionate about social justice and diversity issues and is extremely interested in taking students abroad to experience the culture associated with world language. Griffin has BAs in French and Spanish from Marywood University as well as an M.Ed. from TCNJ. He will be teaching French and Spanish in the middle and upper schools.
The English department will be joined by two new faculty, one of whom is a familiar face already to the MFS community. Katie Stutz (‘09) recently served as Mrs. Galler’s long-term substitute earlier this school year. After being inducted into the Cum Laude Society and graduating from MFS, Stutz earned her BA in English secondary education at TCNJ and also earned her masters at the same college. Stutz will return next year as a full-time English teacher for 6th, 8th, and 9th grade. She will also coach basketball.
All the way from Ecuador, Clare MacKenzie will be leaving the Peace Corps to join the MFS teaching faculty. MacKenzie had taught English for 11 years prior to volunteering in Ecuador, including a teaching stint at a fellow friends school. She received her BA in English from Haverford College and her masters in English Literature from Middlebury College. MacKenzie will teach 9th, 11th, and 12th grade and serve as an upper school advisor.
After a four-year hiatus, former history teacher Mark Stetina will rejoin the MFS faculty to once again instruct middle and upper school history. Stetina and his wife moved to Argentina, and upon his return to the U.S., he worked at Drexel University where he also earned his M.S.. Stetina will return to teach 8th and 9th grade. In addition, he will most likely coach soccer and basketball.
As we break off for summer vacation, it is comforting to know that the torches of education are being passed into good hands.
